Help! Which Surge Protecter? (1 Viewer)

[Scottie Mow]

I'm looking to spend up to $400 for a top quality power bar for my home theater. The problem is, I know squat about this. I was eyeing up the Monster HTS 1000, but then someone advised me to look at Panamax. I'm not quite sure what to look for in a good power bar. Can someone help me?

By the way, my apartment is a fairly old building and the wiring is poor - proper grounding is a problem (if that makes a difference). I'm also not in an area prone to brown-outs, but do experience power outtages due to lightning strikes knocking power out.

Thanks for any help

 

[TyR]

I'm actually going to add a question, Scottie. Two, actually. I hope that doing so doesn't prevent you from getting a clear and helpful answer to your question.

How often should one replace a power strip? My understanding is that they can reach an absorptive limit. And how big a difference -- performance-wise -- is there between low, medium, and high-end power strips?

 

[Chu Gai]

a typical surge protector works on the basis of diverting the excess voltage to ground. ideally, what you're looking to do is have that ground be earth ground. in other words, the excess would be diverted into the earth. if you were in your own home, i'd advocate strongly for a whole house surge protector since those are placed at the meter or the circuit breakers. the key is a short (10 foot or less) path to earth ground. so if your ground is suspect, and there's really no way of telling (this isn't a simple measure the resistance with a multimeter) the effectiveness of a surge protector is compromised. a surge will seek the lowest impedance path to earth and who knows where that will be.

since you're up in BC and I 'think' you don't have a lot of lighting activity with a high percentage of ground strikes, you might be better served with a surge protection device that utilize either Silicon Avalanche Diodes or devices that incorporate sine wave tracking or some hybridization of the two. It's really not all that big a deal which way you go.
An example of the former (SAD) is the DPS Plus series from Transtector Corporation Transtector is a highly regarded company in surge protection and is a sister company of PolyPhaser, considered by many a leader in protecting sensitive electronic equipment. Transtector is a US corporation 800-882-9110 and you can buy their DPS plus, which includes protection for cable for

 

[Scottie Mow]

great, thanks for the advice Chu. I'll talk to the local power company and see if there's anything they can do.

Scott